Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

Late Latin, from Greek onomatopoiiā, from onomatopoios, coiner of names : onoma, onomat-, name; see nŏ̄-men- in Indo-European roots + poiein, to make; see kwei-2 in Indo-European roots.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ὀνοματοποιία (onomatopoiia, "the coining of a word in imitation of a sound"), from ονοματοποιέω (onomatopoieo, "to coin names"), from ὄνομα (onoma, "name") + ποιέω (poieo, "to make, to do, to produce").

Examples

I like the word onomatopoeia, and not just because I still remember how to spell it from third grade spelling classes.

The masthead is in a font that is made to look cracked, this links to the idea of onomatopoeia that 'kerrang' sounds like the crashing sound of a symbol, connoting again the style of music the magazine is based on.

BRIC À BRAC (a French word, formed by a kind of onomatopoeia, meaning a heterogeneous collection of odds and ends; cf. _de bric et de broc_, corresponding to our "by hook or by crook"; or by reduplication from

Wordmap

Word visualization

Comments

A lesson on this word is not something you'd expect to find in a comic marital drama-- yet, that's exactly what happens in Lucinda Coxon's Happy Now? in whih the main character's husband is a lawyer-turned English teacher who cares deeply about word use and punctuation-- a quick recap of student submission of Onomatopoeia examples like bang, crash and wallop (which he questions)-- he moves on to the well-placed comma. For more about the play seem my review at www.curtainup.com/happynow10.html

If onomatopoeia is using words that imitate the sound they denote, then what is the word for words that make you look like the appearance they denote when you say them, e.g. moue, that special kind of disdainful French pout.